SUPERLATIVE has signed director/DP April Maxey for commercials and branded content. Her recent short film Work, produced through AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, premiered at the 2022 Sundance and Tribeca film festivals and garnered a Jury Award for U.S. Short at Outfest (making it Oscar-eligible). Maxey’s spot work spans such brands as Jack Daniels, TomboyX and the Tribeca Channel.
“April’s warm personality translates through her directing,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “In her documentary work, people are able to reach a level of openness and confidence. Every shot and subject reflects that powerful balance of radiance and vulnerability. The same goes for her narrative commercials and films, which showcase rich character nuance and emotion. We are confident that her storytelling will bring more honesty about the human condition to global campaigns.”
For her part, Maxey wanted to be represented by a company not hesitant to embrace the unique voice and sensibilities of a queer Latina director. “I believe that by telling stories from underrepresented perspectives, we challenge current points of view, creating space and validity for stories not yet seen,” said Maxey, who holds a BFA in Film/Video from Pratt Institute. “My directing approach is framed by my work as a cinematographer, editor and actor. I want to challenge perceptions by telling stories through a lens of depth and truth.”
Maxey directed her first spot/branding campaigns while working at 422LUXE, a NY-based production company specializing in LGBTQ perspectives. Her multi-spot campaign for TomboyX gender neutral fashions is indicative of Maxey’s approach to brand outreach. In the spots, Maxey chronicles making people’s differences visible. “It’s about equal representation and celebration of all people’s differences as their superpower,” said Maxey.
In Maxey’s highly lauded 13-minute short Work, the audience follows Gabriela (played by Marisela Zumbado), a woman who impulsively goes back to her job as a lap dancer after a painful breakup. A return to sex work at first provides a false sense of control, until time allows her to reclaim her true identity. “As humans, we all feel a longing for connection,” said Maxey. “I wanted to tell this story of a queer Latina, at a crossroads in her life, searching for a way forward. It’s a densely packed 13 minutes and I hope that it is able to linger with the audience long after they watch it.”
SUPERLATIVE is under the aegis of Dezil, EP Pia Clemente and managing director David Kwan.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More